http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
HERE are some of the racial epithets I've been called in my lifetime:
Chink. Gook. Jap. Nigger. Slant eyes. Dog-eater. Those are just the
printable ones. I'm an American of Filipino descent, but have been
mistaken for everything from native Hawaiian to Caribbean. I've been
blamed for the Vietnam War, attacked for stealing jobs, and told
countless times to "go back home" - which usually means Bangkok or
Beijing or some other exotic locale I've only seen on a map.

My parents taught me early on not to dwell on racial ignorance. "Don't
waste your time on other people's stupidity," my dad counseled.
"Everyone has prejudices," my mom explained when I came home in tears
because a classmate had ridiculed my brown skin. "Now stop crying," she
said. I'm eternally grateful for parents' no-nonsense attitude about
bigotry. Their wisdom has spared me countless hours of self-pitying and
grievance-mongering.

Too bad the folks in New York City who run something called the
"Committee for 100" didn't get similar advice from their parents. The
organization, in conjunction with the Anti-Defamation League, released a
widely-publicized survey last week decrying "racist" attitudes towards
Chinese Americans and Asian Americans. The national news media, always
eager to stoke ethnic tensions and exploit victim-card politics, played
the story big:

"Asian Americans seen negatively; Results of landmark survey called
startling, disheartening," blared the San Francisco Chronicle in a
front-page story.

A whopping 75 percent of Americans surveyed did not have strong negative
views of Chinese Americans. But that good news didn't make the
headlines. Instead, the articles quoted griping liberal Asian Americans
like UCLA political scientist Don Nakanishi, who complained to the L.A.
Times: "It makes you wonder how not only Chinese Americans, but Asian
Americans, can shake this legacy of somehow being less than 100%
Americans."

Well, the Committee of 100 itself doesn't help matters when it asks poll
questions like this: Are Chinese-Americans "taking too many jobs from
Americans?" The premise of that question - Chinese-Americans are not
Americans - is exactly the attitude the group bemoans.

Henry Tang, chairman of the Committee of 100, called the poll
"startling." But given the steady stream of woe-is-me whining from
groups like Tang's and the ADL's, what's truly startling is that such a
large number of Americans polled are [ital]not[ital] white-hooded
racists. The vast majority have positive attitudes toward Asian
Americans. Some 91 percent surveyed said that Chinese Americans had
strong family values; 77 percent said they were honest as
businesspeople; and 67 percent said they placed a high value on
education.

Nevertheless, U.S. Senator Daniel Akaka of Hawaii said the poll "should
alarm all Americans who cherish the ideals of liberty and equality
enshrined in our Constitution." He pointed to the 32 percent of those
surveyed who believed that Chinese Americans are more loyal to China
than the U.S. and the 46 percent who said that passing secret
information to the Chinese government was a problem.

More alarming is the media's lack of skepticism and perspective in
hyping these results. The Committee of 100, an elite pro-China
engagement public affairs group, has a vested interest in playing the
victim card to shield its allies from criticism. Not a single newspaper
that covered the survey reported that until recently, one prominent
member of the Committee of 100 was none other than convicted campaign
finance felon and suspected foreign agent John Huang. As Huang himself
once warned: "There is a Chinese saying: 'When you drink water, always
think about the source.'"

The Committee of 100 has called on minority leaders to develop an
"action plan" in light of the survey results. Here's mine: Life is
short. Everyone has prejudices. Now stop crying and don't waste your
time on other people's
stupidity.